Positie van de eerstelijnspsycholoog in de geestelijke gezondheidszorg.

Position of the primary care psychologist in the mental health care Primary care psychologists provide short term mental health services for psychological and psychosocial problems in primary care. The impact of different measures to strengthen the mental health services in the primary care on the capacity of primary care psychologists and provided care in the last ten years will be studied. The primary care psychologists’ capacity has increased. The care provided by the primary care psychologist didn’t change very much. The average time of treatment has been reduced. Also the pattern of referrals to and from the primary care psychologists did not change. The majority of the primary care psychologists’ clients was referred by the general practitioner and the primary care psychologist referred one third of his clients to specialized somatic and mental health care. Only the increased capacity of primary care psychologists is an indication of the stronger position of the primary care psychologist in the primary health care. Possible consequences of the forthcoming inclusion of primary care psychology in the standard package of essential health care of Dutch health insurances will be discussed. (aut. ref.)